Can Google continue its dominance as the world's most popular search engine? According to a study by the research firm Vividence, although Google is the market leader the difference between it and other search engines is shrinking. The study was conducted while monitoring the Internet searching of 2,000 users.

Even though Google's search results were better for a specific search, its rivals were generally only a couple of percentage points behind. Additionally, users on other sites, such as Ask Jeeves, were more likely to follow advertisement links, the source of search engine revenue.

Vividence believes that a large part of the reason Google is successful is its simple search interface. That advantage, too, looks as though it may be slipping, as others like Yahoo! have offered stripped down sites.

CHRISTOPHER'S OPINION
Google is the world leader, no doubt about it … but the leader used to be Yahoo! Though hard to believe, it is not inconceivable that Google could lose ground.

For its part, the company continues to try to innovate. Gmail, assuming it becomes available publicly, is an example of that, and can only help make the site more bulletproof.

It's tough for anyone to stay on top in this industry, but I have a feeling Google will continue its dominance well into the future.

USER COMMENTS 24 comment(s)

Funny(8:18am EST Wed May 26 2004)– by Googler

skewed reportage(8:41am EST Wed May 26 2004)When this study was reported (off AP I think) in my local paper, the headline was, “Study Questions Google's Superiority–Most Popular, But is it Better?”

Then, a couple paragraphs down, buried mid-paragraph, a few stats from the study–in which, in EVERY CASE, Google won!

The Headline *might* have been: “Google: Still On Top–Most Popular and Best Results”

But no: “Man Bites Dog” will always win the headline war.

People are creatures of habit. Once I got to using Yahoo! search, I stuck with it for a long time, and it took several times' seeing Google mentioned and raved over in various articles before I tried it. Once there I stuck with Google.

Mozilla has a drop-down search box, and when I began seeing bits stating that Yahoo! search was now pulling ahead of Google, I did some comparisons on my own.

Google still wins. Not all its hits are good ones (for example, I wanted to check out if the synidicate had today's Blondie comic strip on line, and I Googled “Dagwood Blondie comic strip” and the first three pages were for pr0n sites!) — but all in all Google will give you the most results and eventually you will find what you want.– by PsionFan

google???(10:18am EST Wed May 26 2004)what is all the hype about google. I have used it seldomly because i never get what i want for the outcome. Yahoo has never failed me in that. – by txhawk

txhawk(10:22am EST Wed May 26 2004)Yahoo?

You must be shopping all the time then because people PAY Yahoo for their Yahoo ranking.

If you are looking for information you can't beat Google right now. – by Gahoo

I don't(10:27am EST Wed May 26 2004)know about you guys. But I often tell people I know if they are searching for something on the internet I tell them to 'Google it'. I know many of you do to. Google is here to stay, and stay on top they most likely will. I prefer Google, mainly because it is quick and easy. Just my opinion.

I will hold back my political comments for another time. – by boywonder

Google edge cracking(10:28am EST Wed May 26 2004)Google is starting to suck. Maybe they should replace a few thousand computers with humans to massage the results. .Whenever I try to find a review of something I get crap crap crap. – by ohmy

people use to say “napster it”(11:54am EST Wed May 26 2004)hehebut in all honestly the only reason google will die is for some big reason such as too many commercial results trying to sell me something or too many results of other lists of results.

Now if there is a search engine with a radio button where I could say that my search has something to do with me wanting to purchase something or not then I will change at the drop of a hat.

And I'm kind of getting sick of seeing results that show a page saying “your search prase” was not found.

And about this seconday subject poping up here… politics… which lies should I side with today?

sorry, getting ranty there. – by wtv

hard work pays off(12:01pm EST Wed May 26 2004)Google is Google because of America. Two grad students overcame the barriers that people like Michael Moore say there are. The formula is simple: work hard, make a great product and/or provide great a service, use your brain a little and you can make it here regardless of what the naysayers preach.

– by Issac

Who is Changing?(12:45pm EST Wed May 26 2004) If the competitors are becoming more like Google in simplifying their interface, that is a good thing. But, if the management at Google plan on crapping up their front page with undesirable “features”, a lot of us may move on. One feature they could add would be a link to opt out of commercial sales sites. – by RCAman

Google Sux(12:46pm EST Wed May 26 2004)Yahoo seaches are much better than Google. Google is also a stupid name for any company, it sounds like a baby trying to take. I alway hear some moron say “Go to Google”, It just makes no sense to me how they came up with that stupid name.

Just typing Google pisses me off.

– by I.P. Freely

google knows how to focus(1:15pm EST Wed May 26 2004)The reason google is the best is because they focus the majority of thier efforts on making a good search engine. The others such as Yahoo! or MSN almost seem to make the search engine an added feature, not the center of the site. I almost think that google's expansion into Gmail, and the new section could start to lead to its fall as attention drifts away from the search engine. – by J_B

Google Comments(1:33pm EST Wed May 26 2004)Who's monitoring these comments anyway? Seems all these off-subject comments should be eliminated so as to make the comments section more readable. Just my two cents worth.As for Google and it's competition, right now it doesn't have any IMHO.– by Nobody Special

Stupid name?(4:24pm EST Wed May 26 2004)“Google is also a stupid name for any company”

EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!(5:50pm EST Wed May 26 2004)go to google, type 'weapons of mass destruction' in the search bar then hit i feal lucky an read what comes up, really read it cos u mite think its wrong. BUT ITS FUNNY!!!! – by funnyguy

Hmmmm(6:33pm EST Wed May 26 2004)I use to use Yahoo now and then when i was in school, i thought the name was pretty silly though. Lycos was much better :)

Google is used way more in the IT Industry ( at least over here), most questions are answered by

I think they will remain the most popular for quite some time too.– by Headley

google(6:38pm EST Wed May 26 2004)When ever I have a question about linux, i type it in google and I always tend to get the best results from google over yahoo/ask.com – by ChuckyCheese

Netscape(7:00pm EST Wed May 26 2004)I just love Netscape! There are all kinds of fun things to click on with my one button mouse! – by Employed in Seattle

about google.(9:11pm EST Wed May 26 2004) Just like any other search engine out there google has it's strengths , and weaknesses.

For the general public if they like google then fine, let them.

As for me I like little known search engines, they give me much better results. – by Human

I was using Google…(10:27pm EST Wed May 26 2004)before most people heard of it. Yahoo started to suck with its cluttered home page, so I switched to Google. Now Google is starting to suck by returing too many ad related sites, with the actual site you want buried down below. I'm ready to switch, and I won't be buying Google stock. Barriers to entry in this space are low, and switching costs for users are non-existent. People will only tolerate so many ads, so profits will be limited. They will survive, but they won't be the next Microsoft as some would suggest. My two cents…

– by spud boy

once again I respond late(12:13am EST Thu May 27 2004)I really need to check this site for news more often so I can respond on time … but I just thought Googler's post was interesting.

Seeing how on Yahoo's website that Yahoo is on the top and that Google is right below them ….

Then on Google's site, Google is on top of Yahoo, but Google has place them both at about the 6 and 7th spots.

I believe it was altavista on top of Google's search. I suppose they realize that if you are looking for search engines … what is the point of putting yours on top other than to say you are conceded ? Obviously the visitor knows your website is a search engine so why list it at all other than to cover the doubt in a slow mind whether google is a search engine. So of course they place themselves farther down with what a person would probably really be looking for at the top.

It is reasons like this as to why I will always choose google over yahoo. That is until google starts doing yahoo things … then I might switch to a multiple search engine like dog pile. – by cwtrex

conceded(6:51pm EST Thu May 27 2004)“conceded”? – by conceited?

Mohawk.(2:38am EST Sat Jun 05 2004)Ahem, I do believe that it hasn't been all too long that yahoo has been delivering their own results as oppose to delivering googles results, so TX, before yahoo made that switch, what was so drastically different to keep you clinging to yahoo? – by Apexified

google(9:25am EST Mon May 09 2005)yeah, I like google. stop hateing you haters! straight up yo' – by really cool